A singular, compassionate history of humanity, told through the lens of a misunderstood disease.
'Superb . . . a fitting tribute to outcasts who should never have been cast out.'
TELEGRAPH (5/5)
'Remarkable . . . grippingly and humanely recounted.'
PHILIPPE SANDS
'It is impossible not to be moved by the lives unfolding in these pages, impossible not to be left transformed and enlightened. '
LEILA ABOULELA
WINNER OF THE 2023 RSL GILES ST AUBYN AWARD
The story of leprosy is the story of humanity.
It is a story of isolation and exclusion, of resilience and resistance, one which has permeated global cultures in myriad ways for thousands of years, dividing the world into the 'clean' and the 'unclean'.
Oliver Basciano's journey to demystify leprosy takes him from the Romanian border, the hinterlands of Brazil and the fringes of Siberia to the Japanese archipelago, Robben Island and the northern provinces of Mozambique. It reveals the image of medieval leprosy to be a nineteenth-century myth invented to justify gross mistreatment of patients, a blueprint used for further state-sanctioned stigma: colonialism and racism, religious and economic exploitation.
Basciano meets those living with leprosy today, those exiled to various leprosaria around the world and forced to find homes away from home; he hears stories of community and perseverance in the face of grave circumstances, of lives bound to each other through shared experience and a refusal to be cast aside.
A work of outstanding empathy, Outcast shines new light on the human condition, asking: does a society's sense of itself always rely on ostracisation?
'A new kind of travel book - across continents and, more importantly, across the partitions that separate the healthy from the damned - Outcast is a revisionist history that makes you realise, when you turn its last page, how differently you look at the world than you did when you first cracked its spine.'
BENJAMIN MOSER
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A revelatory history of humanity - spanning thousands of years and ranging across the world - told through the lens of a misunderstood disease.
<b><i>Outcast </i>is remarkable. It is a powerful, revelatory and truly shocking account spanning across time and place, then and still now, grippingly and humanely recounted. </b>
<b>A singular, compassionate history of humanity, told through the lens of a misunderstood disease.</b>
ISBN
9780571384303
Publisert
2025-06-19
Utgiver
Vendor
Faber & Faber
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
153 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
320
Forfatter